The war created by Russia in Ukraine has created huge issues with the Paper and Pulp Industries in Europe. Russia is a major exporter of oil, natural gas, minerals, pulp, paper and linerboard to Europe. Russia exports of paper, paperboard and pulp were US $2.41 billion during 2020, according to the United Nations. BIV reports that Russia exported $12 billion worth of lumber, logs, pulp, paper and wood pellets in 2021. The volume of packaging paper and paperboard exports from Russia reached 1.35 million metric tons in 2019 with expectations to grow 37.4 percent. Russia exported 2.316 million tons of pulp in 2022.
China had shifted its purchase of pulp to Europe, reducing imports from Russia and the USA over the past 3 years. However, we anticipate that China will go back to Russia due to the sanctions and price concessions. In addition, anticipate China will be purchasing rights to timber resources in Russia. As we see more sanctions, companies in the paper, pulp and related industries will no longer do business with Russia. We see a number of them already pulling out of Russia.
Wisconsin has a great opportunity with the embargo on Russia to supply Europe who is in desperate need of resources for pulp, paper and packaging materials, along with increasing the USA production to support America! Russia usually sends some 180,000-200,000 tons of kraftliner to Europe each year. Ukraine is a big exporter of kraftliner to Europe. Russia accounts for roughly 4% of global pulp exports.
With the strike at UPM, the US market is in desperate need for fine printing paper resources, and we will see less and less paper coming from Europe. The projections for printing papers are to decrease 1-2% over the year. However, that is not the case for 2022. We have seen a lot of demand for printing and packaging papers! With NO PAPER or LIMITED PAPER from Europe, this creates a large market for the USA-based paper manufacturers to support the fine printing paper production.
The USA companies have increased the production of board which could supply the USA and the world market. Wisconsin has a large number of companies in the board and corrugated industries! These are questions for the US-based paper companies to use the Wisconsin resources to rebuild our pulp and paper industries. Obviously, Green Bay Packaging has been a great asset for Wisconsin, setting a great example!
The Green Bay Innovation Group has had some success with finding paper for the printing industry and/or coming up with some alternative solutions. We are building a library of resources to support you. We would like to set up a meeting and invite ALL parties to better understand the impact of paper on the 5P and Converting Industries! The Paper Industry is the backbone of our industries and at this time, it is BROKEN! If you are interested, please send me an email to:
martinpochs@gmail.com or text to: 608-698-3333. We welcome your feedback, too!
